“This is our third year here and by all measures it’s been our best yet,” said Peter Anderson, president of Anderson Group, a company that insures musical instruments worldwide. “But every year it’s been good so I have no complaints. We’re delighted to be here and we’re already talking about next year.”
“We come every year—we’ve been here for 20 years in the same booth,” said Maria Rose of Guitarra Antonio Aparicio of Valencia, Spain. “Our experience is good, especially this year. We’ve seen more people in the halls than last year and I think it’s going to be a very good year this year.”
This year, the show highlighted many new features, exhibits and learning pavilions, offering NAMM members and music product professionals business tips and insight for success in today’s marketplace.
Themed “Take It to ’11,” this year’s NAMM Show added a new App and Gaming Pavilion, welcoming this growing market of high-tech music-making product companies to the show for the first time.
“At NAMM we unveiled the trumpet app and it’s been great,” said Tom Scharfeld, president and founder of Spoonjack, a musical app developer. “In general I think this is the place to be for music. Our products are apps and they are sold through the Apple app store so people might ask why would we be here.
“Well, it’s because this is where music is. Everyone in this room is going to have some sort of interest in what we’re doing. And if they like it they’ll tell their friends. Retailers in particular. They’re working with customers. They’re building relationships. They’re interested in showing them new things. Our products are ultra entry-level instruments. Instead of going off and buying a $1,000 trombone or a $2,000 trumpet they can start off on a three or four dollar trumpet on their phone and learn about how things are structured—the harmonics—and hopefully migrate to the real thing.”
“It’s been great,” said James Taylor, director of global business at Artist Works, an online learning platform for online music schools and academies. “This is our first year at NAMM. What we’ve found is that we have had very different audiences on each of the days. Initially it was about the new partnerships we were forming with manufacturers and dealers. And as the weekend went on a lot more education providers and teachers were coming to see what we were doing. As we’re entering a new phase in teaching using iPads and tablets, our product is coming onto the market at the right time.”
In addition, industry members interested in the newest developments from the recording, live sound, DJ, house of worship and stage and lighting industries participated in the broadest educational experience at the show’s Hands On Training (H.O.T.) Zone.
“The (H.O.T. Zone) session was great, very informative, said Mike Morelli from The Upper Room in Elmira, Canada. “I’m going to go home and experiment. Four days is almost not enough, there’s so much here to see. I’m a musician, so I’ll go home and try and use the session aspects in my studio and what I’m doing and in my business too.”